


Touch

by roseforthethorns



Series: Retirement Bliss? [9]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Retirement, episodic story but does sort of mention major character death just in the last paragraph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 06:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8478187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseforthethorns/pseuds/roseforthethorns
Summary: Timetospy's headcanon of how James and Q comfort each other. It looks like a hug but it means so much more.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [timetospy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/timetospy/gifts).



> Sorry not sorry about the last paragraph.

It's a habit left over from years working at MI6, and neither one of them is particularly keen to let it go.

  
It usually happens in the house, while James is cooking (Q has been banished from all baking related activities since the kettle incident) or when Q is reading or typing away at his laptop. Sometimes it's while James is putting together model cars or his husband is doing the washing up. Sometimes it just happens to be whoever is the last to bed.

  
James started it back when they were first sleeping together, six months after Skyfall was destroyed. Q would be sat at his desk, typing away like a man possessed, and Bond would wrap his arms around the smaller man and just hold him for a few minutes. Sometimes he'd drop a kiss to Q’s untamable curls, sometimes bury his nose in the man’s neck for that hint of citrus and mint and tea that always clung to his lover (still does, as a matter of fact). They'd stay like that for a little while before James would head off without a word to blow something up in the shooting range. After the initial surprise that James was initiating non-sexual contact, Q rather grew to like it. He knew both he and James were more than a little deprived of physical contact, so the gesture was a very sweet one. It would always leave the hint of a smile on his lips and his eyes glowing with happiness.

  
The first time Q ever returned the gesture was after James had woken from a vivid nightmare. Q was awake and working quietly when his lover began thrashing in his sleep, screaming, but it wasn't until Q’s given name left James's lips that he knew what was different this time. When he managed to wake James, the man left the room and headed for the Scotch Q kept in the kitchen. The young boffin padded silently down the hall as he followed Bond. The older agent had already downed two fingers of Scotch and was pouring another when Q very slowly and very gently wrapped himself around the naked agent’s back. They didn't speak; they didn't move for several minutes, and when James was ready, he let Q coax him back to bed to sleep. Something happened that night, though. Something in James's facade around Q cracked and was never quite the same. For a few days he was incredibly gentle with Q until work took him away for nearly a month. They never discussed it, and everything was business as usual when Bond returned, but he would stare at Q a little longer when the man wasn't looking. He'd hold Q’s hand or go out of his way for a dressing down about “improper handling of Q-branch tech.” The sex was rougher and louder than ever, but even so, Q wasn't quite fast asleep the very first time James hugged him from behind and whispered in his ear. “ _I love you_.”

  
Now they still do it. Older, more wizened, more wrinkles and laugh lines and Q’s hair beginning to silver magnificently at his temples while James's blond hair thins out more and more each month. One still comes up behind the other to offer a hug, to hold his still touch starved husband for a few minutes of contented bliss.

  
Years later, when no one in the village has heard from them for a few days, it's how they find them both: smiling, peaceful, with James's arms around Q from behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews and comments welcome.


End file.
